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The Lucknow Sentinel, 1994-05-04, Page 19Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, May 4, 1994 - Page 19 Ashfield woman relates work experiences iVMacedonia Lorraine MacDonald was guest speaker at the Ashfield Women's Missionary Society Easter thankof- fering meeting on Apr. 24. Lorraine is the daughter of Allan and Beryl MacDonald of Kintail. She is a Canada Customs officer, presently working at the airport in London, Ontario. Using slides, Lorraine told of her working trip to Macedonia this past winter. As a member of the United Nations Sanctions Assistants Mis- sion (SAM), she helped man the border crossings between Macedonia and Serbia to the north. Their command centre was set up in a room in their hotel, which was clean but with bare necessities. You learned to take a shower when the steam pipes were warm, otherwise it meant cold water bathing. Because unfriendly Serbia sup- plies Macedonia's power, they turned it up and down at will. The food was relatively tasty, but with very' few fresh fruits and vegetables, as Macedonia is land- locked with mountains and unfriendly neighbors. Due to these factors, it is very expensive to import these commodities, as it is many other goods. Sanctions are in place between Serbia and Macedonia. Truck loads of various goods are not supposed to be allowed across the border, but to avoid confrontations, about all the SAM team could was to monitor and keep records of goods coming and going, and then forward this information to the U.N. authorities to deal with. The SAM team was located in the capital city of Skopje. Being sur- rounded by mountains, it is very polluted with smog. Unemployment is very high; only the rich can afford to educate their children. Street kids are prevalent, begging for food, money etc. Children run up to cars at stop lights and with a dirty cloth attempt to "clean" your windshield and windows. ' To prevent them from "dirtying" your windows, you have to pay them a few cents, with which they run away elated. ' One tourist couple were awakened in the night by children rummaging through the garbage cans in an alley at a nearby restaurant~ The lady, being sympathetic, fixed plates of food for them and left it nicely covered on the cans for a few nights. She had to stop. Word got around and a gang of kids were fightjng and hurting each other for the food. Skopje is only a six -hour drive from Sarajevo in Bosnia. Because Macedonia has had a very turbulent political past, with numerous rulers, it has many ethnical groups. Greece to the south is very unfriendly because of the name. Greece has a northern province with the same name; and (Greece) is afraid Macedonia will try to take over this northern territory. As a result Greece has imposed sanctions of a sort. People with Macedonian passports and vehicles with Macedonian license plates are not allowed into Greece. Everyone is watching this closely in hopes it does not escalate into a volatile situation. However, Lor- raine and some of her co-workers were able to visit Thessaloniki in Greece, and Sofia in Bulgaria. Members of her team were from the USA, Norway, Sweden, -England and Canada. Needless to say her trip was quite interesting and informative. She says, "It really makes you appreciate Canada, and all our wonderful luxuries which we all take for granted." Lorraine was presented with an evergreen tree in appreciation of her •presentation. Prior to the meeting, a bountiful lunch was served to the congregation and guests. Beryl MacDonald • opened the meeting with readers Mayme Wilkins, Helen MacLennan and Edith Simpson assisting. Judy MacKenzie received the offering and the Sunday School pupils sang two songs. Solar eclipses can cause blindness there to see the eclipse which will remain in a ring form, covering 91 per cent of the moon, for about six minutes. At maximum eclipse sunlight will be reduced causing a coolness itt the air but will only be noticeable if the sky is mainly clear, even then the change will be subtle. Because the eclipse causes a lot of children to be curious, G.C. Huston principal Keith Hall, will be cancelling the afternoon kindergar- ten class, keeping children inside during recess and noon hour and praying for rain and cloud. Similar practices will be in effect at other area elementary schools as well. Hlynialuk said there's a miscon- ception that it's the eclipse that causes partial blindness while in reality it's the sunlight. "It's just plain, ordinary, solar radiation. If you were outside.today and looked at the sun with a naked eye, you could cause the same amount of damage..:there's nothing special about radiations that occur during an eclipse," said Hlynialuk. He said the sun always releases ultra -violet rays,, infrared radiation and a lot of light but it's the sheer by Tracey Doerr Something amazing is going to happen in the sky this May 10 but if you watch it directly you will be partially bliiaded for life. The chances of an annular solar eclipse taking place in an area close to you is very rare. It happens only once approximately every hundred years. . The effect is only visible along a narrow track and anyone not watching .within that track will see only a partial eclipse. In Port Elgin, Southampton and area you will see a partial eclipse where the moon will cover ap- proximately 88 per cent of the sun at about 1:20 p.m.. The entire process ,will take place between 11:40 a.m. and 3 p.m. If you watch the eclipse safely * you will see what is similar to a 1/8 moon. "It will be a very interesting cres- cent," said John Hlynialuk, rice -president of the Bruce County Astronomical Society. "It's a very rare kind of phenomenon." The best place to view. this eclipse. is south of Lake Erie where it will appear in the shape of a ring. Stulients of Saugeen District Secon- dary (SDSS) school along . with some area adults will be travelling total amount of that energy that damages the eye. . "The only thing with the eclipse, of course, is that people are drawn to it because there's something happening and they figure 'well, we'll just take a quick look' and a lot of the time that's all that's re- quired to do some damage." No one knows this better than a Port Elgin man who has the image of the 1963 eclipse permanently lodged in his left eye. "What I did was accidental but it was smart, as it turned out, was just use one eye." Because only the one eye was damaged the other eye works harder to compensate for it. At the age of 13 he said he'd heard some warnings about what might happen if he resisted his better judgement to look, but he ignored them. It only took a few seconds for the sun to burn into the most critical part of the retina, the portion that is essential for focusing. "Oncethe burn occurs, it's easier to see what you're looking at because the burnt part blocks out bright light," said the man who wishes to remain anonymous. "I now have a permanent impres- sion of that particular eclipse so I don't need photographs anymore, I can see it whenever I want to." Because .there are no nerve en- dings in this particular part of the eye no pain occurs while 'the damage is being done. A group of optometrists gathered some research after the 1979 eclipse and found that half of the people who looked at the eclipse knew the consequences. Other research shows that most who look are between the ages of 10 and 17. Over the last century it became obvious that the eclipse didn't af- fect the earth in any other way except for the change in light. But before that time there were many myths about the total eclipse. "Ancient people thought Greek dragons were ea Gi nig the sun. They'd beat drums acid fire, rockets in the air ' to chase the dragon away." said Hlynialuk. Hlynialuk had also heard that wars have "literally ceased" because an eclipse occurred. And some thought it, was an omen and God's way of telling them he was ,unhappy. *For safe viewing you can either watch it live on Trillium Cable or 1 by constructing a view box. f Lillian Kuipers I'm proud to call' you Mom., :Love The Rambler Thank you, Mother, for all your wonderful gifts The sweet invisible kind Irma Henderson There just aren't any better words to describe you than' "You Are Simply The Best" Happy Mothers Day! Love, Barbara, Brenda & Bonnie cif Sharon Weber For the most wonderful and thoughtful mother of all time: Most understanding • and very kind ' Love Jolene, Jennifer,. Valerie, Jeffery & Loretta To Mother, with -Love! Like the vote of confidence you give•in the face of doubts and fears, The way you have of turning thoughts to ` laughter instead of tears These gifts are more precious to me than pure gold. Thank you, Mother. A thousand fold!